Del Mar Opening Week On-Track Business Up

Increases in both attendance and handle.

Del Mar officials announced that figures for the Southern California track’s first week of its summer meet was up in both on-track attendance and on-track handle.

For the first five days (July 22 through July 26), the average daily attendance was 22,674, up 14.9% and the handle was $2,732,147, an increase from a year ago of 12.3%. Del Mar raced six days per week in 2008, but has switched to a five-day-per-week schedule this year.

"We’re pleased and we’re encouraged," Del Mar Thoroughbred Club president and general manager Joe Harper said in a release. "You can certainly say we’re off to a good start and there aren’t a whole lot of businesses around right now that can claim that."

Del Mar’s daily average attendance during the 2008 season was 16,002 per day. Its daily average on-track handle was $2,167,028 per day.